Big News! Nat's In the Bag! - Learning Partnership's Welcome to Kindergarten Program

Nat The Cat is part of the Learning Partnership Welcome to Kindergarten Package! So thrilling. My biggest hope has always been for my books to reach children that may never have any. Nat The Cat Can Sleep Like That is doing exactly that! Our book is in the resource package given to every family that participates in this program. Thank you Learning Partnership!

To find out more about this program and how to get your community involved follow this link. The Learning Partnership Resource Kit

Tara's Brand New Book is out in Bookstores!

Nat The Cat is out in books at last. After many months of planning, drawing and designing he is here! Horray! 

Meet the cats that inspired the art for Nat...
This is Sasha and I. Once it was decided that Sasha would be our leading lady it became easier to create visual narative to support Victoria's text.

Sasha inspired  the kitten for Nat The Cat Can Sleep Like That

Nat was inspired by Tigger our sweet boy. I miss him everyday.

Tigger watching another cat in our house.
 He is perched on the piano which is not allowed.
I always let Tig break the rules.

Tony our first family cat. He came into our lives in 1994 when John, Quin, Duran, Zephora , Mom and I all became one big family.

Tony keeping me warm while I work in February at the farm in 2003

Bear of course who is still with us. He and Tigger were litter mates, brothers and the best of friends. He is such a kind soul and so wonderful with kittens. He just happens to be a black cat. It's really tricky to illustrate black cats at night and convey lot's of expression. So Nat is orange. 

Bear Bear and a foster kitty

Check out the cool book trailer too! I never saw that coming! Inventive ways to promote books on the internet. Thank you Erin Woods!

Working Away.... with my new watercolours!

Busy! Busy! Still working away on the book. Yesterday I started painting! At last the fun begins...

 I discovered a new brand of watercolour that I am over the moon about! Has anyone heard of Yarka watercolor from Russia? They are amazing! The reds and blues are to die for. They are hard to come by in Canada. currys.com is starting to sell them but they only carry the original set. I bought mine from aswexpress.com  in North Carolina. I have been stocking my PO box waiting for them to arrive for the last 3 weeks. Yesterday they came! Woo Whoo!  The first thing I did was to give them a spin. The following picture shows some to the special colours in the extended and sequel set.

 I still love my old Windsor and Newton set. However the Yarka half pans offer a broad spectrum of colour that I have never found before in a half pan set! The reds and blues are amazing. The range of greens are really special too.

I did end up with some doubles and triples of the basic colours but it was worth it. Many of the startling blues, greens, and reds are in the extended and sequel set. The pan system also makes it really easy to customize your palette if you are working on a large project and need a handy selection of colour ready to go. For anyone out there who is into sketching the outdoors this is a must have! Back to the studio- Bye for now. Tara:0)

I love Winter Projects!

I am busy, busy these days! I am working on a new picture book. I am so excited. I have been hoping for this for some time now. I won't say too much but can you guess what kind of a book it will be? Cats?! Maybe.

This is my original concept sketch of Sasha the kitten in the bathtub for Nat The Cat Can Sleep Like That. We had an evening of pirates with Johnny Depp!

Minnie and Bear

Bear and Bunny were rescued about 2 weeks ago and they were approximately six weeks old. They are still getting used to eating solid food. They are a joy basically. These two little dudes have been keeping me very busy. I have been trying to capture them with my camera but they are so fast! I is difficult to take a picture of a fast black cat!

Little Bear is getting his tummy tickled in this picture.

Tortie with lovely ginger smudges all over her face. The more she grows her patches lighten and her expressions are easier to see. Is she not cute?

A Bear and Bunny update. These two sweeties were adopted by an author friend of ours. They have a lovely family and are still up to their antics! It is so nice when things work out. A rare happy ending!

Kittens and Scrabble

This little dude likes to eat tiles!